On the 106th Anniversary of IWD: For Feminism and Socialism!

A women’s conference of the Socialist International in Copenhagen in 1910 launched International Women’s Day globally in 1911. Trotskyist parties, including the predecessor organization of Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste in the Canadian state, re-launched the modern IWD in Canada in 1978.

We did this for good reason. Women’s oppression is rooted in the capitalist system. As with heterosexism, racism, environmental destruction and war, capitalism profits from discrimination, dispossession and wasteful plunder of natural resources.

We march for bread … and for roses too! We do so in the face of escalating attacks on basic human needs – a vicious austerity drive linked to the deepening global recession.

Establishment claims that women have ‘achieved equality’ are nothing but a sick joke.

On average, women are paid 18 per cent less than men – $8000/year less than males.
27 per cent of employed women work fewer than 30 hours per week, more than double the 12 per cent of men who work part-time. 7 out of 10 part-time workers are female.

Low paid women increasingly hold more than one job to survive. 56 per cent of multiple job holders are women.

Aboriginal women and girls suffer shameful economic and social conditions. They are systemic victims of racism, inequality, physical assault, disappearance and murder.

Most women still bear the double burden of doing most of the domestic labour, in addition to work outside the home.

From Palestine to Haiti, from Libya and Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan to Colombia, women and children are disproportionately the casualties of wars and military occupation in which Ottawa is directly involved or complicit. Millions of women and men demonstrated on January 21 against the Trump agenda which threatens to increase sexism, racism, homophobia and exploitation on all levels.

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Ligue pour L'Action Socialiste

Who are we?

Socialist Action / Ligue pour l'Action socialiste is an organization of revolutionary socialists across the Canadian state, active in the labour movement, social justice, international solidarity, feminist and environmental campaigns.